Inking, wetting, and cleaning control means for duplicating machines



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United States Patent 3,153,380 INKING, WETTWG, AND CLEANING CONTRQLMEANS FOR DUPLICATING MACHINES Erich Gericke, Flemmingstrasse 14,Berlin- Steglitz, Germany Filed .luly 27, 1961, Ser. No. 127,217 Claimspriority, application Germany Aug. 1, 1960 1 Claim. (Cl. 101-142) Thisinvention relates to printing and duplicating machines.

In such machines lithographic foils must be fixed to a plate cylinderand wetted with a water-repellent liquid before being inked. Whileinking proceeds an offset cylinder must be brought into contact with theplate cylinder. As soon as the foil has been inked the offset cylindermust be stopped and the paper feed started, the several cylinders, forinstance the plate cylinder, offset cylinder and an impression cylinder,must then be brought into printing positions. When printing has beencompleted the inking system and the paper feed must be renderedinactive, the blanket cleaned and dried and the machine stopped.

Machines of this kind are used for medium and very short runs (forexample from to 20 copies per printing foil). This means that the abovementioned operations must be repeated at very short intervals (say every1 or 2 minutes).

The drawback inherent in known machines is that a special control leveris provided for each of the above described operations or functions.Some machines may have as many as 7 or 8 control levers located indifferent positions which'are fairly widely apart so that the controloperations which the machine operator is called upon to perform,necessitate his continuous careful attention and concentration to avoidupsetting the proper functioning of the machine by a faulty controlaction.

For these reasons it is desirable that the above mentioned functionsshould be considerably simplified and rendered capable of beingperformed without a large number of controls located far apart indifferent positions on the machine, as has been the case in the past.

According to the present invention all the functions for starting themachine to the position in which consecutive printing can proceed arecontrolled by one single starting lever, whereas all the functionsrequired for rendering the machine inactive and bringing it to a stopwith a cleaned and dried olfset cylinder are controlled by a second,i.e. a stopping lever. This arrangement considerably reduces the timehitherto Wasted in performing the several functional operations andtherefore permits the performance of the machine to be substantiallyimproved with the simultaneous simplification of its control.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanyingdrawings which illustrate by way of example a preferred embodimentthereof and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic side elevation of an offset printing machineaccording to the invention;

FIG. 2 shows the plate cylinder, the offset cylinder and the impressioncylinder and the starting and stopping levers according to the inventionon a larger scale;

FIG. 3 corresponds generally to FIG. 2 but includes control means forthe inking system;

FIG. 4 shows a liquid container for damping the printing foil, thestopping lever with a liquid container for cleaning the rubber blanket,a foil feeder table and a foil gripping means;

FIG. 5 shows details of the starting and stopping mechanism in differentworking positions, and

FIG. 6 is a partial view of the offset printing machine seen from thefront and showing the locations of the starting and stopping levers.

'ice

In offset printing machines a lithographic printing foil 1 is fixed to aplate cylinder 2 and the printed image is first transferred from thefoil to a rubber blanket 5 mounted on the offset cylinder 3 of themachine. The blanket 5 in turn transfers the image to a sheet of paperwhich is pressed against the rubber blanket 5 on the offset cylinder 3by an impression cylinder 4.

According to the present invention, the operations of the variousmembers to effect printing are controlled by levers 6 and 7 mounted onshafts 8 and 9. The upper lever 6 is the starting lever which insuccession performs the following functions: when the starting lever 6is raised through a given angular distance a roller 10 on the levermakes contact with a cam-edged lever 11 and pushes this lever 11 beyonda dead centre position to permit springs 13 to close grippers 12 whichgrip the end of a printing foil 1 on a foil feeder table 14. On afurther upward movement of lever 6, a lever 15 which is likewise fixedto shaft 8 strikes an arm 16 on the foil entry table 17 and deflects thesame about its fulcrum to clear the printing foil 1 as it is being drawninto the machine. The feeder table 14 is retained in this position by adetent 18 which must be released before a fresh printing foil is de-.posited on the table, release of the detent permitting table 17 tospring back into feeding position.

When the starting lever 6 is further raised to its upper end position apin 19, rigidly connected with lever 6, pushes against the abutments60-61 of the lever 20 and 40 which is loosely mounted on shaft 8 andraises the same upwards. Consequently a rod 21 which is suspended fromlever 20 is likewise raised and an abutment 2.2 on rod 21 starts theelectrical micro switch means 23 and 57 for starting and stopping, asillustrated in FIG. 3, and the machine starts.

In this position a damping wiper 24 which is kept moist by a Wick 25dipping into a liquid container 26 fixed to shaft 8 wipes the printingfoil 1 asit passes, and thus fixes the same.

When the starting lever 6 is lowered, the pin 27 which is rigidlyconnected to the lever 6, moves under the push rod 28 and moves the pushrod 28 upwards (in illustrated position 28b), due to deflection of thestarting lever 6. Thus, the triangular lever 29, which deflects aboutthe point 63, moves clockwise and pushes, with the pin 64, the slottedlever 31 counter-clockwise about the fulcrum 65. Consequently the pullrod 32 is pulled to the right and takes along in its slot 66 thecylinder 67 of the shank 33a of the lever 33. Thus the lever 33 isswiveled around the point 68 counter-clockwise and pushes the pull rod34 downwards, the latter deflecting the clamp lever 35 with itseccentric 36 about the fulcrum 69 to the left. In this manner, theinking roller 37 moves eccentrically to fulcrum 69 towards platecylinder 2. Simultaneously with the pull rod 34 the pull rod 34a ispushed downwards which latter deflects the lever 35a with its eccentric36a about the fulcrum 69:: also to the left. Since the eccentric 36a inthe clamp lever 35a is turned opposite to the eccentric 36 in the clamplever 35, the inking roller 38 is moved away from the plate cylinder 2.

When the catch lever 30 is set in the opposite direction, as shown inFIG. 4, the push rod 28a will be pushed upwards by the pin 27.Consequently the triangular lever 29 deflects counter-clockwise and thepull rod 32 will be pushed over the lever 31 to the left. The lever 33thus effects that the pull rods 34 and 34a are pulled in the upperdirection by which means the inking roller 37 will be deflected from theplate cylinder 2 while the inking roller 38 is moved into contact withthe plate cylinder 2.

When the starting lever 6 reaches its bottom position, pin 27 will havebeen rotated through its dead centre position and will therefore remainin this position although spring 39 is tensioned and urges the lever toreturn. During the final stage of the upward deflection of lever 6, alever 40which is loosely mounted on shaft 8 had been raised by pin 19sufliciently to engage a detent 41.

When the starting lever 6 is now lowered, pin 19 pushes lever 40downwards in the opposite direction and the latter, by means of detent41, pulls down push rod 42 which deflects a lever 43 clockwise about afixed fulcrum, thus activating the mechanism for starting the cylinders.The paper feed is thus initiated in conventional manner and, as soon asthe first sheet reaches the impression cylinder, the gap between thecylinders is closed and the actual process of printing begins. Themachine operates and prints the required number of copies.

As soon as the necessary copies have been produced the lower lever, viz.the stopping lever 7, is operated. This lever [is moved from itsposition of rest upwards, and a lever 46 which is rigidly connectedtherewith swings upwards, turning a lever 48 in an anticlockwisedirection by the displacement of a push rod 47. After having turnedthrough a given angle, the pull rod 44a is also moved to the right andan upper face 48a on lever 48 throws push rod 28 off its lifting pin, sothat the tensioned spring 39 can return the triangular lever 29 into amiddle position. The eccentrics 36 in the inking roller bearings 35 arethus rotated into a position in which both inking rollers 37 and 38 areout of contact with plate cylinder 2. During the further deflection ofthe stopping lever 7, a rod linkage not shown in the drawing, opens avalve in a suction pipe and thereby renders inactive the'suction feed ofthe paper besides causing the cylinders to separate. Further motion ofthe stopping lever 7 into its upper position moves the blanket wiper 49,which is kept moist by a wick 50 dipping into a liquid container 51rigidly mounted on shaft 9, into contact with the rubber blanket 5,cleaning the blanket as it revolves past the wiper. When the stoppinglever 7 is now returned to its bottom position, a drying wiper 52 whichit rigidly connected with shaft 9 is moved into contact with the rubberblanket and dries the same. At the same time, a butler spring 53 in thebottom stop has been compressed, so that the stopping lever 7, uponbeing released, will rebound, causing a lever 55 which is rigidlyconnected with the stopping lever, and which now engages a detent 56, tomove rod 21 oil. its rest 58. A spring 59 attached to rod 21 pulls itinto the next rest. As a result of this action the upper abutment 69 onrod 21 is withdrawn from underneath an electric switch 57 and themachine stops.

I claim:

An offset printing and duplicating machine with an automatic papersupply particularly for printing short and very short runs comprisingcooperating printing, blanket and impression cylinders, means forwetting the printing foil with a dye-repellent liquid before beinginked, said wetting means being supported for movement toward and awayfrom said foil, means for inking said foil, said inking means beingsupported for movement towards and away from said foil, cleaning anddrying means supported for movement toward and away from said blanketcylinder, a starting lever, means associated with each of said wettingmeans, inking means and cleaning and drying means, positioned tocooperate with said starting lever and responsive to movement thereoffor causing movement thereof to an operative position, a stopping lever,means associated with each of said wetting means, inking means andcleaning and drying means positioned to cooperate with said stoppinglever and responsive to movement thereof for causing movement thereof toan inoperative position, a shaft for each of said levers upon which eachof said levers is rotatively mounted, said means cooperating with saidlevers comprising cams fixed upon said shafts .and said levers beingoscillated in a vertical plane whereby the control functions are carriedout with the upward and the downward motion of the relevant lever.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,576,598 Goulding Mar. 16, 1926 2,220,255 Marchev et a1 Nov. 5, 19402,482,408 Ford Sept. 20, 1949 2,990,768 Fischetti July 4, 1961

